Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-01

are on \ line maxim III angle of fOrty-five
degrees with the Sidewalk. This EIly be
made palmer by 4 simple mathematical
proposition. Say q middle lime drawn
through the horse and buggy is thirty feet
from the building line ON the north side of
Pine street, that being the side along
W hieh the mystery moves-an observer in
a doorway on that side of the street would
not see the rig until it was within little
more than forty-twO feet OF him, or until
a line drawn at right angles to the line
bisecting the buggy touched the building
line ut a point thirty feet distant from and
east Of the observer. From this it would
seem that the closer an observer goes 10
the rig the shorter is the warning he re-
c~eives, and 3 man moving in an opposite
direction does not and cannot see it. The
algebraic formula representing the visual
possibilities is this:
Y square z Y square So square.
y representing a line at right angles
from the observer to the extended line BIZ
secting the horse and buggy lOngitudinally;
Y representing that part Of the bisecting
line extending from the horse to its inter
section with y, and z being tine hypOthe-
muse of the right angled triangle or the
! lT llIC hlSlAlCC " III OboCI NCl lOln lIC
horse. This demonstrates the impoSsibility
of rushing forward and stopping the horse,
rs the policeman has tried to do many times
at the corner OF Thirteenth and Pine, be-
cause the forward movement OF the horse
and the forward movement of the investi-
gator cause a change of the ~hypothenuse,
and either the rig disappears or the investi-
gator lands behind it. From the rear it is
visible NJ all distances and at every angle,
but as the two sides lessen with every new
APPROACH, so the time in which TO prepare
for the spectre grows less until at the
horses there is no time at all allowed.
The word spectre has been written here,
it came unbidden from the writer's pencil,
but as il explains the mystery it will be
allowed to remain even at the risk of hOr-
rifying many Pine streeterS who have re-
fused to believe in the ghostly qualities of
the rig. 1t cannot be explained otherwise.
Men who have not a particle of superstition
in their make-ups have Investigated the
subject and failed to offer any physical so
luton of it,. The police of the neighbOr-
hood have tried their detective skill in at
tempts to unravel the mystery, but with
out result. The masked buggy and its
little brown horse has passed regularly be
fore the eyes of the denizens of the five
blocks on Pine street comprised within the
given limits; it takes shape q short dis
lance west of Twenty-eighthand disappears
into the night vapOrs in Compton avenue.
1t has been followed from its starting point
to the place of disappearance not by one
but by dozens OF persons, and not once but
dozens of times.
A Globe Democrat reporter, by invitation
of a prominent gentleman who resides on
Pine street, stood in front of No. 2Sl2 on
that street at 5.27 p. m. yesterday waiting
for the mystery. Darkness was beginning
to envelope the city. The masked buggy
and the little brown horse appeared almost
opposite the two n few seconds after the
time designated.
There's your buggy" said the gentle
man.. Now follow IT.
The reporter went up to the side Of the
vehicle and touched it. 1t was wood and
leather and iron, to the tOvch, the came us
Otner buggies. and the horses coat was un-
miStakubly hair. The harness was leather,
and the reins and everything else seemed
to be commonplace and substantial. He
ran ahead uf the horse, and 10! no horse or
buggy was there. He stood where they
should pass, and saw nothing OF it until he
found himself standing at its tail end. The
horse and buggy passed over and around
him, or through, with not as much mani
festatiOn OF its presence as II summer breeze
could give. Many people along the street
SAW this experiment, which was several
times repeated, and were amazed and as
founded. The reported climbed on the
back of the buggy and looked i'll. The i'll
terror was empty. Pounding on the back
and sides of the vehicle produced no out
cry or demonstration from the interior. An
attempt to remOve the reinS from the flap
aperture was Intellectual. An effort to di-
rect the horse by pulling either of them,
did not cause the animal to change his
course or turn his head. Stopping the horse
was an utter impOsSibility, because when
the reporter got on a line with him he was
not visible. The small children ON Pine
street, who nave learned to look with ter
ror and dread upon the mystery, were on
lookout ut several points, and older OBJ
servers were noted on every block. Fully
eleven minutes were required for travcrS-
ing the five blocks, and in less than two
minutes more the horse and vehicle dis
solved ON Compton avenue, vanishing into
ylpUr and passing almost from the report
er'S touch into nOthingneSS.
The GIO6C- DcmOcydt'S readers will prob
ably expect an explanation of this mystery
in the present article; but even Globe
Democrat reporters are human, and their
knowledge cannot transcend possibilities.
In dealing with the supernatural they can
not he more successful than other mOrtalS.
What is here written down of the mystic
riOus journeys along Pine street of the
masked buggy drawn by the little brown
horse can be vOuched for by hundreds of
ladies and gentlemen Of the neighbOrhOOd.
The only rational explanation of the phe-
nOmena attending its movements is that
both animal and vehicle are spectral cnti-
ties. presenting under certain conditions,
physical qualities than are intended to de
ceive. But what does the ghOstly riG meal?
And whose is the pertubed spirit that is
doomed to these measured nightly rides
along Pine sire ct?